I wonder if I am doing something wrong or if this is just the way it is but…
When I listen to Tidal via their native Tidal MacOS app vs. the Roon MacOS player it sounds considerably better. This makes me question the ability of Roon to deliver decent quality playback to my other devices, or if it’s my own setup causing the disparity in playback quality?
My setup:
Roon Core Server 1.7 (537) running on a Windows 10 machine connected to my LAN via ethernet cable
Roon Core Server 1.7 (537) running on MacBook MacOS 10.15.4 (19E287) (setup as remote player not core)
Tidal for MacOC 2.15.2.63 running on the same MacBook connected to LAN via on WiFi
FiiO BTR3 USB DAC connected to MacBook via USB and 3.5mm output to powered speakers
Roon gives me 2 options for Audio output (system controlled and FiiO DAC direct) and neither sound nearly as good as the Tidal App on either of them.
The Tidal app output sounds considerably better when the FiiO DAC is selected compared to Roon.
Can anyone please shed some light on what is actually going on here?
You want to switch to built-in output; system goes via the OS mixer, which may resemble, whereas built-in uses the hardware directly.
You’re not getting bit perfect playback which is likely the reason you hear a difference. You should achieve bit perfect, but may have incorrectly setup the zones. Can you share screenshots of those settings too?
It’s not so much that I turned them off, I didn’t know it was there. The option isn’t available on the system output option but on the DAC option it was set to No MQA Support which I never selected.
Now (with the DAC option, not the system output option) with the MQA decoder set to Decoder and Renderer, it sounds better than the Tidal App! Thanks!
Probably not the source of the problems you are hearing, but have you tried setting this Mac up just running Roon Bridge for MacOS? Just seems less stuff you need running on that machine the better.
Ok, I was very confused after your message re: MQA settings… I again listened endlessly back and forth between Tidal and Roon (Roon Zone FiiO DAC (attached to the Mac)) and it all sounded VERY similar and fairly uninspiring, I thought I was suffering listening fatigue, not the difference I was experiencing earlier. I also compared switching the MQA Capabilities setting in the Roon Device Setup for the FiiO DAC to ‘No MQA support/Decoder/Renderer’ etc. and it also made no difference now either.
I don’t see the “Enable MQA Core Decoder” option (see screenshot).
Then something VERY unexpected happened. I switched the Roon Zone back to System Output, again no difference. However. while listening through Roon (NOT Tidal app) I altered the sound output setting on the Mac Tidal app player (to FiiO BTR3)! See screenshot. The SQ jumped up again, significantly! What the heck?! I was listening through Roon notTidal app. I checked and double checked that the Roon Player was playing and NOT the Tidal App.
Further switching around confirmed to me that the Tidal app setting (Use Exclusive Mode) was messing with Roon’s ability to access the correct output (I think?!). I had to close the Tidal app to consistently get the best SQ from Roon. Now Roon sounds just as good, I think better, than the Tidal app. Phew! That was driving me crazy! Thanks so much (all of you) for your help and sticking with me there. I was lost for a while.
When you set something to Exclusive that means the app has exclusive control of the audio device. You shouldn’t run TIDAL and Roon simultaneously in that case.
That’s what I have just learned. I had no idea and had forgotten I had even set that setting in Tidal some time ago. It nearly convinced me that Roon wasn’t as capable as the Tidal app. Now I know, thanks.
Thanks. That’s interesting and something to bear in mind when I get a better DAC and some better speakers for my office. Currently, as @Joel pointed out my mini portable FiiO DAC, whilst quite good, doesn’t have MQA decoding (although I thought it did).
The Tidal app was interfering with the ability of Roon to select the correct output or at least something because the SQ was sub par until I fiddled about or closed the Tidal app. I am still not completely sure what as going on, but for sure Roon sounds every bit as good as the Tidal app when the correct Zone is selected and the Tidal app is not running.
